U.S. Secretary of Transportation (ret.) Norman Mineta will be honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) at its awards banquet at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 9. The award will honor Mineta’s long and distinguished career, including two Cabinet positions, service in the U.S. Congress, his role in transportation education and research, his achievements in transportation security, and his leadership in transportation workforce development. While serving in Congress, he also founded the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) at San Jose (Calif.) State University.
Nuria Fernandez, chair of the MTI Board of Trustees and CEO of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), said, “We all take great pride in having Secretary Mineta as our leader and the source of our inspiration to ensure that every American has access to safe and reliable mobility. The nation is fortunate to have had a visionary like Norm serving in so many leadership positions.”
Secretary Mineta has a distinguished public career
Rod Diridon, emeritus executive director of MTI, said, “Secretary Mineta founded MTI when he chaired the Surface Transportation Subcommittee of the US House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. During that time, he was a key author of the landmark Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA). This visionary legislation posed a major change to transportation planning and policy as the first US federal legislation on the subject in the post-Interstate Highway System era. We are grateful to have him still actively involved with the Institute.”
Secretary Mineta’s leadership in the George W. Bush administration as longest serving secretary of transportation followed his service in the Bill Clinton administration as secretary of commerce. Most importantly, Secretary Mineta has shared his insight and leadership since the time he was elected to the San Jose, Calif. city council in 1969 and his subsequent roles as mayor and congress member.
As a young boy, he was interned along with more than 100,000 other Japanese-Americans during World War II. Following the war’s end, he joined the US military service during the Korean conflict before working in the family’s insurance business and later entering public life.
Secretary Mineta acted decisively on September 11, 2001 when he directed all flights over US airspace to land immediately, and he secured the Canadian government’s cooperation in diverting incoming international flights to Canada. Subsequently, Secretary Mineta played the leading role in establishing the Transportation Security Administration. In 2002 the City of San Jose dedicated its airport as the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport.
Two SJSU/MTI students earn CUTC academic awards
CUTC will also honor an MTI Master of Science in Transportation Management (MSTM) student. Ben Lichty was selected as the MTI 2015 Student of the Year because of his 4.0 GPA and his 12-year career in transportation infrastructure planning and implementation. He is a senior transportation planner in the Division of Commercial Planning and Integration for the California High-Speed Rail Authority.
